=} 
56 
her unavailing efforts, by ringing widely against the wind, 
and so mounting laboriously over the curlew, whose upward 
progression was accomplished by the most extraordinary 
bounds (I can call her movements nothing else) I ever saw. 
Only two, of these many stoops, “told” all through this long 
contest. Twice I saw the curlew knocked round and up, and 
twice her feathers floated in the air like tiny dust; but the 
harm done was not enough, and the two dots finally separated, 
and the disappointed falcon was slowly recalled to us (though 
she needed no “ lure,” and seldom or never gets one shown, as 
she is perfectly willing to stay and work with us. It may be 
of interest to remark, that on looking round, we saw the pointer 
and setter (which on another occasion stood for half an hour 
by the watch) were still “‘on the point; ’’ and when the hawk 
came over, still at a vast elevation, the long-suffering dogs were 
relieved. The grouse (three or four) were sprung, and ‘ Lady 
Jane,” tired as she was, stooped and killed one with her usual 
ease. Needless, I hope, to say she did not go hungry to bed 
that night, for want of a meal on grouse! We were all con- 
vinced, that, with a companion to help her, (two falcons are 
always flown together at a heron, as two greyhounds are usually 
slipped at a hare), the curlew would have been taken in five 
minutes, and with such a complete suit of new and good 
feathers as the old falcon now possesses, I should myself 
be very sorry indeed, to be a curlew in front of her. Shall 
I mention again a singular flight I once saw worked at a 
woodeock? This bird, when put to it, possesses remarkable 
powers of flight, as its extended migrations, and splendid shape 
and length, of wing, abundantly warrant. It occurred in this 
wise, in October, 1866. I found myself, with hawks (eyesses), 
dogs, gillies, a keeper, and my gun, on the moor near the 
western end of Loch-Hil, in Argyl, at a place called Fassiefern, 
not far from the place where Prince Charlie met his devoted 
Highland clansmen in arms for his crown, only to lose the 
day, and their lives, at fatal, and bloody, Culloden. I made 
a line to beat out a wide bank of bracken, then brown with 
early autumn, and saw a bird which I believed then to be 
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